Dedicated - Carly Rae Jepsen: Review

Carly Rae Jepsen

is a Canadian pop singer who blew up in 2011 on the back of her viral hit single Call Me Maybe. In the wake of this success and underwhelming sales for the album it landed on Kiss she took an extended break from studio releases before returning with a drastically different style on the critically acclaimed Emotion. Despite underwhelming sales Carly has been universally acclaimed for her work starting on Emotion and following everything since, but Dedicated is the long awaited fourth full length project and follow-up to Emotion that has been in development for years.

Review By Lavender:
Like many people I first heard about Carly when Call Me Maybe became one of the biggest mega hits of this entire decade and while the song is a decent but overplayed one the album Kiss was a disappointment for me. Which is why I was so surprised to find out a few years later just what Carly had in her when she dropped the absolutely fantastic album Emotion in 2015. This thing was full of perfectly produced sugary sweet 80's throwback pop with a girl next door flare that was all her own and has become one of my favorite pop albums, and biggest surprises of this decade. It obviously wouldn't be fair for me to go into Dedicated having the same expectations, that is until she dropped a line of brilliant singles one after another that shot my hype for the project through the roof. Now that the full project is upon us Carly does not let down and delivers nearly an hour of blissful pop tunes that go toe to toe with much of what the genre has seen since her last full length effort.

So let's talk about the five fantastic singles that Carly dropped in the months leading up to this project, starting with Party For One last year. This serves as the closing track to the album and is a very well written and impeccably produced positivity ballad about living for yourself that serves as one of the loudest and most frontal moments on the entire project. Carly is brilliant on the track and as excellent as the song is it is made even better as the closed to this album where it truly shines after some of the albums quieter moments precede it. Now That I Found You is yet another fantastic single that makes the front half of this project absolutely incredible. The song is a super contemporary pop tune with glossy but incredibly catchy production. The "I think I'm coming alive" refrain is a fantastic one that leads into a great breakdown on the hook and her high pitched vocals soar over a fantastic chorus that benefits from some awesome mixing.

The third single No Drug Like Me kicked off a string of releases once the album was already announced that were absolutely flawless. The song has some HEAVY keys by pop standards that guide the song through its gorgeous and sensual energy. The breakdown into the chorus is perfect and Carly matches the energy perfectly with yet another fantastic hook that sees her providing her own sharp background vocals and even throwing in an old school pop bridge just to wrap it all up in a perfect bow. My favorite of the singles and probably my favorite song on the entire album is the opening track Julien an absolutely amazing single that will be in the hunt for my single of the year in about 6 months. Carly absolutely kills the verse and then drops a gorgeous bridge that is also fantastic and all of this before the songs best part even starts. The chorus of Julien is a bright, catchy and explosive melody that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head, but that doesn't speak to just how captivating and amazing the grooves and driving synthesizers are across this song. The track is a one of a kind pop masterpiece that should be a blueprint for modern pop tracks. Finally the last single was yet another hit on Too Much. It's a classic pop ballad with a simple but effective instrumental and a killer Carly performance that creates a song that expertly blends together her old more natural style and the sleek and synthetic approach she took on Emotion.

Even with how good the singles are there are still even more flat out incredible songs here. Everything He Needs is a fucking incredible song that opens up with personal breathy vocals from Carly that are incredibly captivating. But what sells it here is the amazing hook that is not only an amazing melody but also an excellent performance that strikes a dichotomy with the verses and also some brilliant production as the effects turn her voice into auditory butter over a line of bouncy keys. Carly is confident and sexy throughout the track and it stands out as one of the album sharpest moments. Not to mention the sultry spoken word bridge that is tacked on towards the end of the track comfortably landing it among the best songs I've heard all year. Automatically In Love is another fantastic love ballad with a percussion kick driving the instrumental that leaves Carly to handle the song mostly on her own and she was ready. She delivers a great sensual hook that I fell in love with right away and supports it with some excellent harmonizing for a bright and catchy pop tune.

Feels Right contains the albums lone credited feature from Electric Guest and Asa does a fantastic job on the vocals. The song has a sharp bassline and some production bells and whistles that turn in a fantastically interesting instrumental. Asa and Carly share the hook and while it isn't Carly's best performance here and she loses it a bit in the high notes Asa is sharp and excellent rounding out another fantastic track. Real Love is the albums closest thing to a true ballad and it is a very good one. Carly isn't shy in her performance and it is one of the clearest examples of her talent here as a pop vocalist. Mix this in with an explosive hook that features an instrumental that reminds me of one of my favorite albums of this decade M83's Hurry Uo, We're Dreaming and you have another great song.

The final two great songs I'll mention are Want You In My Room and Right Words Wrong Time. Room is produced by Jack Antanoff of Bleachers and Fun, and it shows straight away when the track busts out some Caribbean drums and syncopation that calls back to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. The production if clearly the focus of the track but Carly does her thing with a sharp bridge and a reserved performance on the verses that add up to a quality song. Right Words Wrong Time pulls pretty heavily from Lana Del Rey instrumentally but Carly is much more up-tempo over top the beat. It's a sharp and well written tune with great vocals and a fantastic explosion into the hook which surprisingly features some of the loudest and punchiest moments on the entire album.

While I would say Dedicated doesn't have any outright bad songs there are a few that have some noticeable flaws. Happy Not Knowing sounds like it's ripped straight from the tracklist of Emotion and the bass heavy 80's inspired grooves are solid but nothing that we haven't heard Carly do before. The song has a great hook but is so short that it barely makes much of an impact in the grander scheme of the album. I'll Be Your Girl features some very strange musical pacing that seems to sprint through the verses just and trudge through a hook that is one of the least interesting here. The vocal harmonizing is excellent and the song itself isn't bad but some very weird songwriting choices were made compositionally that make this much less of a sweet and accessible experience than much of what else is here.

The Sound is a bouncy pop tune with a far to repetitive chorus, it has another heavy instrumental by pop standards but without a great hook to drive it home the track is ultimately a little forgettable. For Sure is once again not a standout moment as everything is just a little bit too by the numbers and everything on the song is done better in other points throughout the record. I will say the background vocals here are once again excellent and compliment the track in a really nice way that make it a worthwhile listen while it's on.

Four years after Emotion shocked the world with its series of infectiously well written and perfectly performed throwback pop tunes Carly has done it again with another album packed full of brilliant songwriting and great performances. Given how much hype was behind this record from Carly's most... dedicated fan base, Dedicated lives up to the hype comfortably. The projects high points are some of the greatest pop tunes of the year and when added together make up a pop album that can go toe to toe with almost anything else released this decade including it's predecessor Emotion. 9.5/10

Best Track: Julien

For more pop check out my review of Marina's Love + Fear here.